Life is full of unexpected events and this was one of them. I found out I was going to see Coldplay live a week ago. One of the advantages of living in Stockholm is getting to see all these great bands but that comes with the risk of not getting a ticket on time or starving for a week, metaphorically, to be able to afford buying one. But it’s worth it, music is always worth it. And tennis. I want to send a big “thank you” to my friends who thought of me when realising they have an extra ticket.

Birdy

After standing in a long and civilised queue for a couple of minutes, there I was on Friends Arena, a place that I visited once before for a football match. The concert started as scheduled at 7 pm with the first opening act: Alessia Cara. Never heard of her but I have to say I was impressed by her strong beautiful voice and joy of playing such a large event. The second opening act was Birdy who pretty much deserves being seen at least once as a headliner because her music is amazing. Check her out here if you want.

Then after a break that seemed so loooong, and after the excitement increased, Coldplay began playing, starting with a short review of every city they visited during the tour so far, and I’ve been blown away instantly. I am pretty sure this was also because of the large venue, the 57.000 of us in the audience (which by the way, didn’t sit anymore even if they had seated tickets), and the amazing light show. Coldplay started with “A Head Full of Dreams” which was pretty much me when I moved to Sweden and in a way, still is. Then they played “Yellow”. Oh my, did I hate the video (especially that annoying guy in it – Chris Martin) when I was in high school. Well that changed when I actually listened to the song, but again this was when I was 15, pretty much the time when no song was good at first till it hit me.

Coldplay

Coldplay didn’t exactly “hit” me but I’ve been having memories of watching them or listening to their songs for 16 years now. And the third song brought me back into my master’s thesis again: “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”. I love the lyrics to this song, I felt my heart beating to so many favourite songs so many times and found inspiration in music in so many situations that I, in a way, identify with the “generation” that this song is speaking to. So for my thesis I analysed this song from quite a political perspective. What came after a few songs reinforced my belief that Coldplay want to make a statement or at least an attempt to make people think. Patience, I am getting there. But right after that we all listened to “The Scientist” which is my favourite Coldplay song and probably the one that made me pay more attention to them. Oh, sweet high school years and 2002, a year with particularly great music.

“Paradise” was on the soundtrack of my first visit to Roland Garros during the tournament. That’s pretty much because that place is a little part of Heaven for me. For the end of the song they totally trashed it and made it explode with energy and joy and light.

Coldplay

Then the band moved on the second stage, in the middle of the audience. And during their performance of 3 songs on this stage this happened: Chris Martin reminded everybody that with all of these bad things that happen in the World these days a concert brings people together in love (we all got Love buttons by the way, when we entered the venue, together with our wristbands that lit up in pretty colours), and then he paid his respects to people in Turkey and Iraq that suffered terror attacks last week. And let’s not forget Bangladesh as well. And everybody felt the moment and clapped loudly. And then they play “Everglow” which is such a beautiful ballad and its lyrics remind me of a quote that appears at the beginning of a-ha’s video, “Lifelines” which is “But it is the afterglow/Inside of you/Of all those you met/Who meant something in your life” (Olav Rex). Then there was a Muhammad Ali tribute.

I will not go through all of their setlist, though I am tempted to write a few words about every song. When performing “Clocks” I really felt I was inside their video because of all the laser lights. “Fix You” sounds amazing, especially the end of the song when the guitar kicks in and everybody sings along and claps and jumps. “Heroes” was a beautiful David Bowie tribute, and again one of my favourite songs ever. That intro to the (original) song and the fact that now I associate it with tennis too made the moment even more special. Why with tennis? Read the story here. “Viva la Vida” and “Adventure of a Lifetime” made everybody dance.

Then the band moved to the third stage, further in the back, to take a request from Instagram, to make fun of the guitar player, to thank their families and friends and to share with all of us that “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” was written in Stockholm. And of course to play more music.

Happy audience & balloons

The concert ended with three more songs on the main stage: “Amazing Day”, “A Sky full of Stars” and “Up&Up”. And I am pretty sure everybody wanted more, I know I did but the show was over. And what a show it was. And leaving aside the lights, the big balloons, the paper birds and stars falling out of the ceiling or the fireworks, that music was amazingly beautiful.